The All Seeing Pi has seen you visiting @Raspberry_Pi Party @missphilbin #PiParty

Introducing The All-Seeing Pi

“Well, the thing I really want to say (if you haven’t already) is that this whole thing was a team build”, explains one of the resource creators, Laura Sach. “I think it would be a brilliant project to do as a team!”

The resource originally came to life at Pycon, where the team demonstrated the use of filters alongside the Camera Module in their hands-on workshops. From there, the project grew into The All-Seeing Pi, which premiered at the Bett stand earlier this year.

Build your own photo booth

Two tactile buttons (you can replace these later with bigger buttons if you wish)

A breadboard

Some male-female jumper leads

If you’re feeling artistic, you can also use a box to build a body for your All-Seeing Pi.

By following the worksheets within the resource, you’ll learn how to set up the Camera Module, connect buttons and a display, control GPIO pins and the camera with Python code, and how to tweet a photo.

Raspberry Pi Foundation’s free resources

We publish our resources under a Creative Commons license, allowing you to use them for free at home, in clubs, and in schools. The All-Seeing Pi resource has been written to cover elements from the Raspberry Pi Digital Curriculum. You can find more information on the curriculum here.

Location

Imagine a world, not as distant as we might like to think, where our individual thought processes are aided and improved by technologies external to the biologically-bequeathed neural matter that sits within our skulls and throughout our nervous systems. Further, these technologies are designed and optimized to perform these functions in such a way as to become automatic or invisible to their user. And rather than act as simple one-way conduits or repositories, they actively drive their user’s thinking in a manner that creates a two-way, symbiotic interaction between human and device. This interactive link between user and external object thus becomes so critical to the overall reasoning ability of the user that the removal of the object directly results in a decrease in the user’s overall cognitive abilities.

Let us also assume that, in this world, we have encountered the same questions about access to private data that we do in our world. Specifically, how do we define a “reasonable expectation of privacy” as it is currently understood under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which regulates the government’s ability to search or seize citizens’ information? And how should we regulate—if at all—the “data capitalism” currently exercised by corporate giants like Google and Facebook (along with countless other entities)?

Recently, Elon Musk announced the launch of a new company whose goal is to create direct links between human brains and computers. The “neural lace” technologies being researched by this company will “allow people to communicate directly with machines without going through a physical interface,” giving humans the ability “to achieve higher levels of cognitive function.”

The world I have described–and being brought to reality through Musk’s company–borrows from Clark’s and Chalmer’s work on the nature of mind and cognition, specifically the question of “where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?” Their theory of active externalism raises a number of interesting questions as to our relationship to our data, the choices we make—consciously and unconsciously—about the use of these data, and our rather confused and inchoate ideas about individual data privacy.

To illustrate just one aspect of this, we can look to the current debate over strong encryption on user devices, specifically, the Apple iPhone. Briefly, when the FBI and other law enforcement agencies wish to examine the contents of a suspect’s iPhone (let us assume for these purposes that the FBI has obtained a warrant for this information), they sometimes find themselves stymied by the strong encryption Apple has made available through later versions of their hardware and software. Under previous versions of these devices, Apple has been able to assist law enforcement by unlocking these un- or lightly-encrypted phones. In the later versions, however, Apple has taken themselves out of this loop, creating encryption mechanisms that have no back door or master key. This has meant that recent (lawful) requests of Apple by law enforcement agencies to obtain data from these newer devices have been rejected.

U.S. Magistrate Judges have relied upon laws such as the All Writs Act to try to compel Apple to provide a solution to this problem. Apple, and other similarly-situated technology companies, have protested these orders on a number of bases both legal and technical. Senior law enforcement officials have responded by stating that no door (real or virtual) should be impervious to law enforcement keys.

The implications of this philosophy of all-seeing law enforcement become quite serious if we were to apply it to our imaginary world of extended cognition. For example, what happens to this equation if our symbiotic cognitive relationships with these objects become so seamless that we no longer have any conscious control over the flow of information to—and stored by—these devices? Further, what if the information we send these devices could be used to reconstruct our inner thought processes? How, then, do we consider the question of government access to individual data? Is there anything that would or should be off limits, even to a warrant or court order?

This is but one example of the privacy questions that I believe would need to be reexamined in our world of extended cognition. Other questions might fall along the lines of legislative and judicial interpretations of the extended cognition theory; if extended cognition can be viewed as a spectrum, what lines might be drawn as the objects become further attenuated?; would U.S. jurisprudence such as third-party doctrine apply? I am in the very early stages of framing this extended project, and am testing the waters as to its usefulness and viability. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Walk around the commons of Cambridge and you’re bound to see one or more of the Cambridge University Quidditch Club players mounted upon sticks with a makeshift quaffle. But try as they might, their broomsticks will never send them soaring through the air.

The same faux-wizardry charge can’t be levelled at Allen Pan‘s Real-Life Wizard Duel. For when the wand-wielding witches or wizards cast one of four Harry Potter spells, their opponent is struck accordingly… as if by magic.

Real spells, real consequences

Allen uses Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) machines to deliver the mighty blows to both himself and his opponent, setting off various sticky pads across the body via voice recognition.

When the spell is pronounced correctly and understood by the Pi, it tells an Arduino to ‘shoot’ the spell out of the wand via an infrared LED. If the infrared receiver attached to the opponent recognises the spell, it sets off the TENS machine to deliver an electric current to the appropriate body part. Expelliarmus, for example, sets off the TENS connected to the arm, while calling out a successful Petrificus Totalus renders the opponent near immobilised as every pad is activated. For a moment’s rest, calling out “Protego” toward your own infrared receiver offers a few moments of protection against all spells aimed in your direction. Phew.

“But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway.”
“And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?”
“Throw it away and punch him on the nose,” Ron suggested.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Defence Against the Dark Arts

To prevent abuse of the spells, each one has its own recharge time, with available spells indicated via LEDs on the wand.

In the realm of Harry Potter fan builds, this has to be a favourite. And while visitors to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter may feel the magical effect of reimagined Butterbeer as they wander around Hogsmead, I’d definitely prefer to play Real Life Wizard Duel with Allen Pan.

For those unfamiliar with the setup, Pi Wars contestants use home-brew Raspberry Pi-powered robots to compete across seven challenge courses. There’s also a host of other categories, including prizes for Artistic and Technical Merit, as well as an award for ‘Funniest Robot’!

With only a few days to go until the big weekend, we’ve wrangled Pi Wars 2017 hosts, Mike and Tim, to give us the lowdown on everything you need to know before the main event.

Crowds gather around the Obstacle Course from the 2015 competition

Pi Wars 2017

This is the third time the competition has been run, and this time we’re running the event over two days:

Saturday – School teams.

Sunday – Beginner, Intermediate and Pro/Veteran teams.

With teams coming all the way from the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Wales and Scotland as well as England, it truly is an international competition! There are more than 65 teams competing across the weekend. Judging by some of the tweets we’ve been seeing, there’s likely to be some fierce competition!

Special guest and head judge

Lucy rightly running from House Robot, Sir Killalot, on the set of BBC Robot Wars

We are very fortunate to welcome BBC Robot Wars judge Dr. Lucy Rogers as our special guest and head judge. Away from Robot Wars, Lucy is an independent designer and maker, and famously introduced Raspberry Pi-controlled animatronics to the Blackgang Chine theme park on the Isle of Wight.

What else is happening?

In addition to the competing teams, there will be plenty of show-and-tell tables featuring robotics projects, plus an extensive marketplace featuring your favourite vendors.

Where is it?

The event takes place at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory (William Gates Building). There is free parking a (very) short walk away, and there is catering on site (or bring a packed lunch!). It’s a nice family-friendly day out. You can chat to the stall holders and teams (when they’re not running between challenges!), and generally find out what is possible with the Raspberry Pi, some robotics components, a healthy dose of programming and a maker’s mindset!

The William Gates Building

What have we been doing to prepare?

Tim has been hard at work designing and building courses for our seven challenges, which are:

Straight-line speed test (autonomous) – get down the course as fast as possible without touching the walls.

The minimal maze (autonomous) – get around the maze without touching the walls.

The line follower (autonomous) – follow the black line for as many circuits as possible.

Slightly deranged golf (remote-controlled) – a beautiful, mystery course that will have a special component added to it by Pi Borg!

The obstacle course (remote-controlled) – who knows what’s in store this year?

Skittles (remote-controlled) – knock the pins down, score points.

Pi Noon – the robot vs robot duel (remote-controlled) – pop the other robot’s balloon before the time runs out.

Mike has been fiercely sending out emails to competitors, exhibitors, volunteers, vendors and our wonderful Pi Wars 2017 sponsors, without whom we would be unable to run the event. He’s also busy constructing individual timetables for each team, so everyone knows exactly where they need to be for their challenge runs.

We’re really looking forward to the weekend – it’s all coming together, and with the help of our volunteers, you can be assured of a warm welcome to the venue. So, grab your tickets and prepare for an epic showdown between dozens of robots, all powered by your favourite single-board computer!

The future of Pi Wars

There is an upcoming Pi Wars-style competition in Pennsylvania, USA on 3 June (The MagPi Magazine published a blog about this today), and we’re expecting another USA competition at some point, as well as a possible Pi Wars Scotland. As for the future of the Cambridge-based event? Let’s get this one out of the way first!

http://firedot.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/logo-firedot-zologic-300x113.png00Fireboss7102http://firedot.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/logo-firedot-zologic-300x113.pngFireboss71022017-03-24 13:11:512017-03-24 13:11:51Pi Wars 2017 is just a few days away!

17:24 Update WhatsApp & Telegram Now!!!
Check Point found vulnerabilities in the web apps of both Telegram and WhatsApp last last week… found out what happened and how to fix them in the video, and get more Threat Wire security briefs at youtube.com/hak5!

In October last year, with the European Space Agency and CNES, we launched the first ever European Astro Pi challenge. We asked students from all across Europe to write code for the flight of French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Proxima mission. Today, we are very excited to announce the winners! First of all, though, we have a very special message from Thomas Pesquet himself, which comes all the way from space…

French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet floats in to thank all participants in the European Astro Pi challenge. In October last year, together with the European Space Agency, we launched the first ever European Astro Pi challenge for the flight of French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of mission Proxima.

Thomas also recorded a video in French: you can click here to see it and to enjoy some more of his excellent microgravity acrobatics.

A bit of background

This year’s competition expands on our previous work with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake, in which, together with the UK Space Agency and ESA, we invited UK students to design software experiments to run on board the ISS.

In 2015, we built two space-hardened Raspberry Pi units, or Astro Pis, to act as the platform on which to run the students’ code. Affectionately nicknamed Ed and Izzy, the units were launched into space on an Atlas V rocket, arriving at the ISS a few days before Tim Peake. He had a great time running all of the programs, and the data collected was transmitted back to Earth so that the winners could analyse their results and share them with the public.

The European challenge provides the opportunity to design code to be run in space to school students from every ESA member country. To support the participants, we worked with ESA and CPC to design, manufacture, and distribute several hundred free Astro Pi activity kits to the teams who registered. Further support for teachers was provided in the form of three live webinars, a demonstration video, and numerous free educational resources.

The Astro Pi activity kit used by participants in the European challenge.

The challenge

Thomas Pesquet assigned two missions to the teams:

A primary mission, for which teams needed to write code to detect when the crew are working in the Columbus module near the Astro Pi units.

A secondary mission, for which teams needed to come up with their own scientific investigation and write the code to execute it.

The deadline for code submissions was 28 February 2017, with the judging taking place the following week. We can now reveal which schools will have the privilege of having their code uploaded to the ISS and run in space.

The proud winners!

Everyone produced great work and the judges found it really tough to narrow the entries down. In addition to the winning submissions, there were a number of teams who had put a great deal of work into their projects, and whose entries have been awarded ‘Highly Commended’ status. These teams will also have their code run on the ISS.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who participated. Massive congratulations are due to the winners! We will upload your code digitally using the space-to-ground link over the next few weeks. Your code will be executed, and any files created will be downloaded from space and returned to you via email for analysis.

Here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we take great pride in the wonderful free resources we produce for you to use in classes, at home and in coding clubs. We publish them under a Creative Commons licence, and they’re an excellent way to develop your digital-making skills.

With yesterday being World Poetry Day (I’m a day late to the party. Shhh), I thought I’d share some wordy-themed [wordy-themed? Are you sure? – Ed] resources for you all to have a play with.

Shakespearean Insult Generator

Have you ever found yourself lost for words just when the moment calls for your best comeback? With the Shakespearean Insult Generator, your mumbled retorts to life’s awkward situations will have the lyrical flow of our nation’s most beloved bard.

Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows!

Not only will the generator provide you with hours of potty-mouthed fun, it’ll also teach you how to read and write data in CSV format using Python, how to manipulate lists, and how to choose a random item from a list.

Talk like a Pirate

Ye’ll never be forced t’walk the plank once ye learn how to talk like a scurvy ol’ pirate… yaaaarrrgh!

The Talk like a Pirate speech generator teaches you how to use jQuery to cause live updates on a web page, how to write regular expressions to match patterns and words, and how to create a web page to input text and output results.

Once you’ve mastered those skills, you can use them to create other speech generators. How about a speech generator that turns certain words into their slang counterparts? Or one that changes words into txt speak – laugh into LOL, and see you into CU?

Secret Agent Chat

The Secret Agent Chat resource shows you how random numbers can be used to encrypt messages, how iteration can be used to encrypt individual characters, and, to make sure nobody cracks your codes, the importance of keeping your keys secret. And with these new skills under your belt, you can write and encrypt messages between you and your friends, ensuring that nobody will be able to read your secrets.

Unlocking your transferable skill set

One of the great things about building projects like these is the way it expands your transferable skill set. When you complete a project using one of our resources, you gain abilities that can be transferred to other projects and situations. You might never need to use a ‘Talk like a Pirate’ speech generator, but you might need to create a way to detect and alter certain word patterns in a document. And while you might be able to coin your own colourful insults, making the Shakespearean Insult Generator gives you the ability to select words from lists at random, allowing you to write a program that picks names to create sports or quiz teams without bias.

All of our resources are available for free on our website, and we continually update them to offer you more opportunities to work on your skills, whatever your age and experience.

Have you built anything from our resources? Let us know in the comments.

On Thursday, March 23rd, 2017, at 3:00 PM PST for EU and 5:00 PM PST for Americas, we will release a new version of Threat Detection and Response (TDR). This update will bring performance enhancements and system upgrades.

Users can expect between 15-30 minutes of downtime for this maintenance window. TDR will continue to collect events from your deployed Fireboxes and Host Sensors. Those events will be analyzed once the downtime concludes. Users may need to log back into the system.

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